Friday, August 26, 2011

Melted Crayon Canvas Art

Bless me Internet, for I have sinned. It's been....eh...a really long time since I've blogged.

Back in May, my son caught pink eye. Not a big deal, as lots of kids get pink eye and live to tell the tale. The problem occurred when he passed it on to me. Thus began my tale of woe and misery. Four months of recurrent illness. Pink eye, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, on top of a dislocated finger and a trip to the emergency room for my son after he fell and shoved a stick clear down his throat.

We seem however, to finally all be well and mended. (Shhh....don't tell anyone, I don't want to jinx it.) Our house is a mess, appointments with friends backed up, craft supplies have been sitting silently for months waiting for someone (me) to get up and do something with them.

A few weeks ago while browsing Pinterest I came across a melted crayon art project that looked simple and beautiful. I just knew that this was exactly what we needed to get our creative juices flowing again.

Using two boxes of Crayola crayons (64 count) The Boy and I picked out our favorite colors in each, in some cases doubling up on our favorite hues. We lined the crayons up at the top of the canvas, with the pointy ends facing down. Pulling out my trusted glue gun, I secured each crayon to the canvas, making sure the Crayola name was facing outward. It's been warm here for the past few days, but not nearly hot enough to melt the crayons by leaving them in the sun, so I found my old hair dryer which hasn't seen proper use in over two years and set it to the highest setting. Propping the canvas up at an angle, I set The Boy to the task of carefully warming the crayons with the hair dryer:
It didn't take too long for the crayon wrappers to turn shiny from the heat and melting waxy goodness. Impatient as we were to see a finished art project, we left the heat on high the entire time we were melting the crayons. This led to a little splatter and caused the crayons to drip in an irregular fashion rather than melting in lines straight down, but I have to admit, I rather like the look.Had we demonstrated patience, we probably could have turned the hairdryer to low after the crayons started to melt and allowed that straight down drip. Something to aim for next time.

My son was thrilled with how beautiful the rainbow art turned out. He wants us to hang the picture in our bedroom so that we always have "a pretty rainbow to wake up to." How sweet is that?

This was such a stunningly simple project with a big return. How can you not look at this and smile?

5 comments:

Glad you're back! All of your family's illnesses sound terrible -- and your poor son with the stick! Ugh, I'm so worred about those kinds of injuries now. : ( Glad you're well at last. I won't tell anyone.

Heya, glad that you are well. From a mum whose done the hard-yards with ill kids, my deepest sympathies. I love the project idea (and so many of your others).Thanks for the inspiration... it's so great to see how different mums inspire creativity with their kids.

I am:

a lover of literature, music, good dark chocolate, fruit smoothies, finger painting, beach camping, small furry animals, butterflies, gardening, nature, rays of sun bursting through on a cloudy day and uninterrupted sleep. Blessed mama to an adorable 5 year old and wife to Super Hubby. Trying to live simply and with greater appreciation for each day.